Ellesmere Port escapes Vauxhall job cuts and plans for secure long-term future

Nov 27 2009 by Neil Hodgson, Liverpool Daily Post

Vauxhall factory in Ellesmere Port _320

VAUXHALL workers are elated after learning their Ellesmere Port car plant has escaped any job cuts and will revert to a three-shift working system by 2011.

And union leaders say that now the site’s long-term future is assured they want to consolidate even further and step up the pressure to win the right to build the new Ampera electric car.

Workers among the plant’s 2,000-strong workforce were told by owner General Motors (GM) yesterday that they would escape unscathed in plans to axe 9,000 jobs throughout the European business.

Vauxhall and Opel chief executive Nick Reilly revealed after a meeting with European unions on Wednesday that up to 60% of job cuts would come at German plants and the future of Antwerp’s GM plant was “uncertain”.

But having been warned by Canadian car parts maker Magna – the former preferred bidder for GM Europe before the US parent decided to retain the business earlier this month – that 800 jobs could be cut at Ellesmere Port, workers were given the news they only dared hope for.

More than 350 jobs at Vauxhall’s Luton plant will be cut and Ellesmere Port union convenor John Fetherstone said their Luton colleagues will be in the minds of his members, but he admitted: “We are absolutely delighted.

“The future of Ellesmere Port looks to be secure now.

“And I believe there is a good chance to build the Ampera.

“We can build it on the platform we have got here for the Astra.

“All our figures indicate we are a plant that can deliver and we deserve the opportunity.”